The Holiday Season is Here!

It's time for Thanksgiving, The Last Jedi release day, Christmas, New Year's...I'm just so excited for the holidays! I've been feeling ready for Christmas (minus the fact I haven't bought any Christmas presents yet) for months. I'm totally with Thanksgiving on the Black Friday restraining order thing (watch this if you're not sure what I'm talking about), but I'm going to go ahead and tell you about Black Friday sales because it's the perfect time to get great discounts on Christmas presents for the book lovers in your life.

The annual Indie Christian Books Black Friday sale is enormous this year. (Site will go live on Nov. 24.) It will be running from Friday, Nov. 24 through Thursday, Nov. 30. We've got nearly 50 authors signed up, and some really fabulous deals going on. For my paperback prices, Twisted Dreams will be $5.99 and all the rest will be $7.50. For ebooks, Twisted Dreams will be free for the first 5 days of the sale and all the rest will be $0.99 the whole time. You'll also be able to get great deals from Jaye L. Knight, J. Grace Pennington, Kendra E. Ardnek, Leah E. Good, and many, many more. Plus, we have a really awesome giveaway going on. You won't want to miss it!

Now, because this season isn't about shopping, and I really hate the worst of the bad isms, I want to share with you an article about the history of Thanksgiving I found on Wallbuilders when looking for Thanksgiving information to share with my little girls' Bible study. Enjoy!

Celebrating Thanksgiving in America  

The tradition introduced by European Americans of Thanksgiving as a time to focus on God and His blessings dates back well over four centuries in America. For example, such thanksgivings occurred in 1541 at Palo Duro Canyon, Texas with Coronado and 1,500 of his men; in 1564 at St. Augustine, Florida with French Huguenot (Protestant) colonists; in 1598 at El Paso, Texas with Juan de Oñate and his expedition; in 1607 at Cape Henry, Virginia with the landing of the Jamestown settlers; in 1619 at Berkeley Plantation, Virginia; (and many other such celebrations). But it is primarily from the Pilgrim’s Thanksgiving celebration of 1621 that we derive the current tradition of Thanksgiving Day.

The Pilgrims set sail for America on September 6, 1620, and for two months braved the harsh elements of a storm-tossed sea. Upon disembarking at Plymouth Rock, they held a prayer service and then hastily began building shelters; however, unprepared for such a harsh New England winter, nearly half of them died before spring. Emerging from that grueling winter, the Pilgrims were surprised when an Indian named Samoset approached them and greeted them in their own language, explaining to them that he had learned English from fishermen and traders. A week later, Samoset returned with a friend named Squanto, who lived with the Pilgrims and accepted their Christian faith. Squanto taught the Pilgrims much about how to live in the New World, and he and Samoset helped forge a long-lasting peace treaty between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians. Pilgrim Governor William Bradford described Squanto as “a special instrument sent of God for [our] good . . . and never left [us] till he died.”

That summer, the Pilgrims, still persevering in prayer and assisted by helpful Indians, reaped a bountiful harvest. As Pilgrim Edward Winslow (later to become the Governor) affirmed, “God be praised, we had a good increase of Indian corn”; “by the goodness of God, we are…far from want.” The grateful Pilgrims therefore declared a three-day feast in December 1621 to thank God and to celebrate with their Indian friends – America’s first Thanksgiving Festival. Ninety Wampanoag Indians joined the fifty Pilgrims for three days of feasting (which included shellfish, lobsters, turkey, corn bread, berries, deer, and other foods), of play (the young Pilgrim and Wampanoag men engaged in races, wrestling matches, and athletic events), and of prayer. This celebration and its accompanying activities were the origin of the holiday that Americans now celebrate each November.

However, while the Pilgrims enjoyed times of prosperity for which they thanked God, they also suffered extreme hardships. In fact, in 1623 they experienced an extended and prolonged drought. Knowing that without a change in the weather there would be no harvest and the winter would be filled with death and starvation, Governor Bradford called the Pilgrims to a time of prayer and fasting to seek God’s direct intervention. Significantly, shortly after that time of prayer – and to the great amazement of the Indian who witnessed the scene – clouds appeared in the sky and a gentle and steady rain began to fall. As Governor Bradford explained:

It came without either wind or thunder or any violence, and by degrees in abundance, as that ye earth was thoroughly wet and soaked therewith, which did so apparently revive and quicken ye decayed corn and other fruits as was wonderful to see, and made ye Indians astonished to behold; and afterwards the Lord sent them such seasonable showers, with interchange of fair warm weather as, through His blessing, caused a fruitful and liberal harvest, to their no small comfort and rejoicing.(1,300 more words)